Paul, the Resurrection and the empty tomb

Steven T Davies makes a very interesting point about Paul's knowledge of the empty tomb. In his book "Risen Indeed: making sense of the Resurrection" (1993) he writes the following (p76):

"But does Paul implicitly refer to the empty tomb in 1 Corinthians 15:4, where he mentions Jesus's burial? I believe it is quite probable that he does. Paul's own view of the nature of the Resurrection, in my opinion, requires that the tomb be empty (which is the reverse of what is sometimes claimed). This is because his simile of the plant growing from the seed (1 Corinthians 15:35-43) entails material continuity between the one and the other. That is to say, Paul's view would seem to imply that Jesus's body could not still be decomposing in the tomb, because it had been transformed into - it became - Jesus's Resurrection body (just as the seed becomes the plant).24"

 "n24: See also Romans 8:11, in which Paul seems to equate Resurrection with the spirit of giving life to a mortal body."

Scientism isn't science - an Easter thought!

Scientism - the "thought or expression regarded as characteristic of scientists ... excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques."

This thought was prompted, once again, in this case while reading Davis, Stephen T, (1993), "Risen Indeed". In particular his observation that, in his experience (and mine) scientists, in particular he singles out physicists, are so much more open to miraculous events, than so many other non-scientists who shelter under Hume's, distinctly holey(sic), umbrella against the possibility of any miracles.

While "... Hume is correct that we have and rightly should have a powerful bias against accepting claims that extraordinary events have occurred. We can imagine cases [where] if massive evidence in favour continued to pile up ... the rational thing would be to lay aside or amend our bias against [such an event] and accept the claim that [it] had occurred. ... Critics of Hume are certainly correct in pointing out that there have been countless cases in which such biases and the expectations that they create have been rationally overcome. Rational people would once have scoffed at the idea of aeroplanes, vaccines and trips to the moon." (p5-6).

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!